Steak n Shake

4.3 out of
5, based on 3 ratings and14 reviews & complaints.

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Favorable

Profiled

Posted on 09/19/2009

DAVIE, FLORIDA -- About a week or two ago, a group of about 5 friends and I went to Steak 'n Shake after a night of bowling to enjoy some of their tasty milkshakes at about 10:30pm. They were not busy...there were no more than 3 other tables with patrons in the dining room.

We were seated and orders were taken quite promptly. We all ordered milkshakes along with a few orders of fries to split between us. We informed the waitress that we'd all like separate bills.

She gave us an attitude right from the start, like she'd rather be doing anything else but serving us. Very straight-to-the-point with no charisma. She almost gave the impression that we were torturing her just by being there. I can only assume it's because we were a group of 19 & 20 year olds. I'm usually not one to be assumptive but it was noticeable, especially when I witnessed her interact with the other restaurant guests.

We finished everything roughly 20 minutes after receiving it all. When she noticed we were all finished, she came over to the table and said in a somewhat whiney tone, "I want to go home!" We weren't sure if she was trying to be conversational or if she was giving us the hint to get going. Nevertheless, not wanting to argue, we proceeded to the cash register to pay.

We each paid our separate bills. Four of my friends paid with cash and after receiving change returned to the table to leave a monetary tip. Myself, along with one other friend, paid only with a debit card. I signed off on the receipt, giving the waitress a $5.00 tip on a $4.xx bill. I kid you not.

I didn't see it, but I was told that the waitress gave me and the other guy who paid with debit cards an absolute look of death when she didn't see us return to the table to leave a tip, despite the fact that we both gave tips through the card. She then began throwing things around in a really huffy mood when she was busing the table after we left.

I realize this isn't the most shocking of complaints, but I found it worth mentioning. I've worked fast food before, and yes, I'm guilty of rolling my eyes when I witnessed a group of young people coming into the restaurant, bracing myself for the worst. But I never let the customers see it. Same applied to when I was just having a bad day in general. I blew off as much steam as I needed to when I was away from customers, but by golly when I was in front of them I was expected to treat them like royalty. Not that it should even make a difference as far as the level of service we received, but we were not AT ALL a pain to deal with. We all knew what we wanted when she took the orders, didn't ask for anything extra, didn't make a huge mess, weren't rowdy, etc.

We were a group of civilized young people only there to enjoy a treat while we reminisced about high school and caught up on what everyone is up to nowadays.

The waitress should be happy to even have a job in this economy, be GRATEFUL that customers are tipping her, and realize that some of her greatest tippers might be people young enough to be her children!

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Great Food & Service, But Restaurants Are Very Dirty

Posted by Soaring Consumer on 11/11/2013

Rating: 4/51

SANFORD/LAKE MARY, FLORIDA -- I am a frequent visitor to the local Steak 'n Shake restaurants in the Central Florida area. I really enjoy the food, the prices are good, the staff are very friendly, and I am overall satisfied with the service.

However, I have found that many of the restaurants have a serious sanitation issue going on, more than half of the different Steak 'n Shake locations I have been to have similar problems. While the tables and seats themselves are kept clean, the light fixtures directly above them and practically every other sign and furnishing appear to have never been cleaned, there are massive loads of thick dust and spider webs on them which have only been growing over time. It concerns me the possibility that this filth might potentially fall below onto the food that myself or others eat. Additionally the floor in many locations is very sticky and muddy.

In the Seminole Towne Center location, the restrooms are practically unusable due to the strong foul odor and seem like they were last cleaned 20 years ago, cleanliness of the restrooms is overall lacking in many Steak 'n Shakes. I hope that this review helps bring attention to these issues to the right people. A health inspector would probably not look upon this too kindly.

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Retrain a Manager

Posted on 10/14/2012

Rating: 4/51

HAMILTON, OHIO -- I frequent the Stake and Shake on Main Street in Hamilton, Ohio. Recently I have witnessed a newer female manager dressing down several different employees in a loud voice. Loud enough for half of the store to hear.
She seems to enjoy making the younger employees cower. I believe she should be instructed to take the offending person in the back at an appropriate time and calmly explain her grievance to them. It is embarrassing for the customers to hear this as well as the employee. A manager who is in control does not have to prove it several times daily unless she feels she is not in control.
I really like the store but will consider going elsewhere if this kind of bulling continues in public.
I mentioned this to several members in my group and they have heard it and agree.

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Snack Pack

Posted by Robert on 07/16/2012

Rating: 5/51

CLARKSVILLE, INDIANA -- I think the Snack Pack deal is the best out there! Compared to
Mc D's 1.00 menu it blows them away. If you don't like catsup
and mustard, don't order it. Put the condiments on the side.
Steak N shake is very good at trying to please. $2.89 for a
steakburger, fries and drink; Wonderful!

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Don't go to Concord Mills Steak N Shake

Posted by mikeacejr on 03/05/2011

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA -- After shopping at the local mall, my wife and I ate at Steak n Shake. It was was busy tonight, but we have normally have had good experiences in the past. Not this time. I had a coupon for a double hamburger with 2 sides and a milk shake for $5.99. I got water. My wife had a coupon for mushroom burger with fries and she got diet coke. The coupon was for $3.99. The whole night the service was slow and seemed to be under staffed. The first incident happened when I received my hamburger and beans. I received no spoon and the hamburger had nothing on it. It was just the bun and 2 patties. I had asked for all the way, except no mustard. The waiter advised to keep the hamburger and he would have another made. A few minutes, the waiter came back and advised I could have any hamburger I would like to make up for the mistake. I advised I would take the mushroom burger. At this point I have not received my other side - a salad. Then when the salad came out, I received no silverware. I went to get silverware. During the meal, we advised we would take another milk shake to go for my wife. Finally, we got all of our food. Then after much time, only 1 milk shake comes out.. We advised we would just take the one, but the waiter advised the other would not be charged. So, we waited. While we waited, I went to pay the bill. When I went to pay the bill, the manager Timothy Pitchford advised we had to pay for everything. I advised we did not order 3 hamburgers and we advised we did not need the other milkshake since we were waiting and we should not be paying for that part of the bill. I explained there was mistakes in our order and the service took way to long. The manager made no acknowledgement of our situation and just demanded that we pay. I felt accused and felt this was a very unkind way to treat a customer. The manager stated the bill was $21 and change with the extra mushroom burger. He stated he took that off, but the bill only went down to $20. I asked for breakdown of the bill. Tim was very short with me and in a very short and demanding manner advised I needed to pay right away. I advised I would go ahead and pay, but would not be back. He rang up my bill. After paying, Manager Tim did not give me an itemized bill to know how he got the total. My wife and I will not be back to this Steak N Shake. We can understand being short staffed. But can not understand a manager having this kind of attitude. He did not care about us.

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Service

Posted by soprano1 on 03/17/2008

ROLLA, MISSOURI -- Tonight I made my first visit to Steak 'n Shake. There were 2 adults, 2 teens, and 2 smaller children.....no babies. We arrived at the Steak 'n Shake in Rolla, Missouri, next to our hotel, at 6:50p.m. We were not greeted to be seated for at least 5 minutes. The person who was to greet us was cleaning something behind the counter and I finally had to ask if we should seat ourselves. She came out and told us to go ahead and sit over there. We received menus and that was all. It took another 25 minutes and my asking if someone could take our order for someone to wait on us (why we remained there, I don't know, but we walked there so we stayed). This girl took our order. It took 10 mminutes for her to bring us the 2 waters we ordered and she said the shakes would take a while. That took another 20 minutes, and then she got the wrong ones, giving the children adult sizes when we ordered the juniors, and giving one of them the wrong flavor, while they were out of the flavor for the other and he had to choose another. The food order finally came, and one of my teens didn't get cheese on his fries while the other got his, which they both ordered. She forgot the salad for the other. She then delivered the kids meals and brought those with fries, telling my daughter that's how the meals came.

But we had ordered fruit as a substitute for the fries, which is on their menu at no additional cost. This was an extra charge on the bill, which is not disclosed anywhere. And we then had to ask for silverware and napkins, which we had never received. Several tables had come and gone before we ever got our food. The bill was the final straw, when she brought us this foot long bill, very hard to decipher, where she had corrected the price on one of the jr. shakes, but not the other and had overcharged on another order. While the girl was a sweet girl, she was thrown to the dogs by the other waitresses there or whomever put her in charge of a 6 person table when this was only her third day to work there.

It was probably not completely her fault; however, when paying the bill at the register, I did complain to the manager about everything that had happened, and she made no effort to do anything about it, stating they were short staffed and "I'm sorry about that". My comment to her was that someone should have noticed that this waitress was drowning in her responsibilities to get this table done and offered to help and get the service that was needed. Her only comment was that she wasn't aware the waitress HAD a problem, yet this was the manager that my mother complained to half-way through the meal. She was WELL aware of the problem. It was a nightmare. One issue after another and the other 2 waitresses never offering to help, yet they saw that we were there for an extremely long time....yes, it got a lot less busy and still they did not offer to help the girl. But, the girl also forgot about everything we asked for, even though she wrote most of it down...
It is a manager responsibility to notice such problems. Our table was the only one being ignored....left for this one waitress to practice on. We ended up staying there until 8:45p.m. making it 5 minutes shy of 2 hours to eat at this place. We could have had a 5 course meal in that amount of time anywhere else and gotten out sooner. Absolutely absurd, rude & inconsiderate management and barely an apology.

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Foul-Mouthed Employee

Posted by bellalily09 on 03/02/2011

I have always enjoyed eating at Steak n Shake. The service is pleasant and prompt. The food is almost always correct and delicious.

However, I recently ran into an off-duty employee at a Cocoa. FL bus stop and was offended by her language. When you are in uniform you represent your store. I kid you not, this girl used every four letter word possible-to the point where she was nearly unintelligible-and she was bad-mouthing customers and managers!! I understand that she has a right to free speech and that Steak n Shake doesn't "own" her BUT she has to know that people are listening! And there she is in a Steak n Shake apron! What kind of image does that promote?

It's that kind of angry employee that makes people afraid to eat out. I mean, if that's what she says about customers out of earshot (and she was vicious) what would she do to my food if I asked her to take it back? I'm glad she was never my waitress...

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Great $4 Lunch

Posted by madconsumer on 03/12/2009

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE -- The other day I went to Steak n Shake for a fast burger and fries. The times I have gone there, I have always ordered inside, and had it to go. Due to a recent review that stated they had a sign "demanding" tips, er I mean, tips required, I did a thorough look around. My order was cooked promptly, and was handed to me with a smile by the cooks assistance. During my 5 minute wait, I saw no signs stating tips were required, but I did notice the staff was friendly and warm to each and every patron.

The burger was cooked nicely, fries were cooked to expectation, and service was friendly and fast. Much better than any other burger place with arches or a crown, and priced the same.

For a good fast food burger, Steak n Shake is the way to go!

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Skimpy Meal

Posted by bargain on 03/07/2009

OCALA, FLORIDA -- First time ever at any Steak n Shake. Normally McDonalds or Wendys.

I walked in and saw it was a restaurant where tipping is required I promptly walked out and went through the drive through. It took a long time for only 3 cars ahead of me.

When I got my order I was surprised on how small the coke was and the fries. The picture of the meal shows a tall drink and a generous amount of fries.
It was an 8 oz coke and what looked like a baby size fry. The burger looked great, almost like the picture but tasted awful, way too much mustard and pickles.

Overall I would only rate this meal about a 3 out of ten because the coke and fries were OK despite their tiny size.

I do not expect to go back to any Steak n Shake under normal circumstances after this experience.

I can't understand how they legally can mis-advertise the meal and get away with it. I think it is a crime which should be prosecuted.

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Awesome team ship

Posted by snoogie on 06/27/2011

STUART, FLORIDA -- I am writing this review to say how happy I was to finally see a team that worked together. I was there Saturday night around 1:30 am and watched our server Erin run the floor and drive through with a smile on her face and the grill cook John helping her get her orders out. He helped with drive through and got our food out and they commuicated well together. I have been coming for a while and this was the first team that seemed happy to be there thank you for these improvements my meal was enjoyable.